The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-11-05

Tue rest OF the NiliaSe was aStlr with prep
arations. The camp was in a bit of valley
on the left bank of Smoky Hill Fork, and
two young trees were cut down, trimmed
to proper length, and then driven into
the ground in the center of the village.
The one intended for me was almost in
front of my tepee, and l stood at the en-
trance and saw the young man drive it into
the earth. More than that, sung out to
them in a steady voice, in their own dialect:
"a stake ike that to hold the Long
Death! You shall see how he will tear it
upp
My words were received with shouts of
satisfaction. No people on earth respect
courage in man as much as the Indians.
They are no less cruel to game man, but
his gameness will shorten his torture.
Feeling that my time had come, and hop
ing to provoke some of them to shoot or
tomahawk me, called out the names of
half dozen of the tribe whom l had sent
to the happy hunting grounds. Some of
the young men fairly raved to get at me,
but the order of the chief was to wait l
boasted that could outshoot, outride and
outrun their best men, and offered to fight
any six of them, if they would turn me
loose, but all this telk only gave them the
more satisfaction in thinking of the tor
ture in store for me. On the same prin-
ciple that people eat their pie last, the In
dians led Sewell out first. His condition
was such that but little fun could be antic-
mated from his torture. He was large,
fine looking man, but the result of his spree
and of his capture was to break him down.
He had no more courage than a child, and
it was pitiful to see him weep and hear his
lamentations begged of the Indians to
let him 90, stating that he was a civilian
who had never injured them, and was so
broken down that he could not live long,
and but for the hotheaded young men in
the tribe should have got him off, They
urged that he was assisting to build the
railroad which was driving the game and
the Indian out of the country, and that the
white men never spared warrior because
he was i'll. Such talk as this settled it,
and the engineer was led out, stripped of
his clothing, and tied securely to the stake.
Had l refused to look on it would have
been taken as an act of cowardice on my
part Realizing this, stepped outside the
lodge and stood within ten feet of the
stake. Sewell wept and begged while be-
ing made fast, but when they stepped back
he suddenly grew calm and asked of me:
"Taylor, what does this all mean? What
are they going to do with me-"
"They are going to torture you, Mr.
Sewell."
"Are you prisoner, too 2
''Yes, and they will torture me after fin
ishing you"
"My God! but this is awful. 1 have
$500 at the camp Won't they take that
and release us ?"
| replied that if we were worth million
dollars apiece we could not purchase our
liberty under the circumstances, and ad-
vised him to call up all his courage and
seek to die like a man. Any sign ofweak
ness on his part would excite contempt and
increased torture, and the better way was
to defy them to do their worst. believe
he tried his best to brace up, but his nerves
were dreadfully shattered, and after three
or four minutes he began crying again.
This had just the effect | predicted. Half
a hundred boys were sent Oft to cut switch
es, and when they returned they were told
to 90 ahead and apply them to the engi-
neer. The idea was to whip some courage
into him, but it was fiat failure. Almost
at the first blow the man cried out like a
woman, and, his feet not having yet been
tied, he danced about like a puppet l
called out to him to kick his tormentors,
but he paid no heed to my voice, and after
a time stood stock still and let the boys
whip him until blood was drawn in score
of places. All this time he cried like a boy
four or five years old, and | heard some of
the old warriors say that he was the most
cowardly white man they had ever met.
He may have lacked courage, but l always
believed his conduct to have been the re-
suit of his shattered mental and physical
condition.
After the boys had switched him for
ten minutes they were called off, and
couple of warriors advanced with their muz-
zle loading rifles and began to fire charges
of powder into the poor fellows flesh.
Does it hurt? Well, sir, hell can't be any
worse. I've had dozen charges fired into
me and I never felt any pain to equal it.
I'll take two bullets in preference to one
charge of powder every time. The first
charge set him to dancing and screaming,
and at the third or fourth he kicked one of
the warriors over and became so savage
that they had to fully bind him to the
stake. They fred thirty-four charges in
all. and by the time they had finished you
could not have told that Sewell was white
man. His agony was something awful,
and he writhed about with such strength
that the stake had twice to be driven deeper
His shrieks and screams, as | afterward
knew, were heard distance Of more than
two miles, and yet this was only the be-
ginning of what they had in store for him.
The next move was to apply the burning
sticks. Some green sticks had been put
upon the FIRE on purpose, and three or four
warriors applied the burning ends to var
ious portions of the engineers body. The
pain fairly drove him crazy, and in short
time he tainted. Water was brought from
the stream and dashed over him, and du-
ring this interval many warriors crowded
around me to see how | was bearing up.
aDogs Do you think you can make
the Long Death cry like that? I shouted
at them. "Here, pail up my trousers and
see where the cowardly Sioux shot powder
into my legs. Pull off my boots and find
where the Cheyennes applied the fire sticks.
Did weep like a woman2 Go ask them.
And when you ask that, inquire who killed
the Black Eagle, Red Horse, Big Noun
tain, Great Buffalo, and Black Feather.
They will tell you, the Long Death.
But for the presence of four or five
chiefs should have been done for on the
spot, so excited were the young men. By
this time Sewell had regained his senses,
and was sobbing and wailing again, and
they went back to their sport. A warrior
him with sharp knife and
slashed him in fifty different places; each
cut being deep enough to be painful, but
none of them very serious. The gush of
blood soon turned the man into horrible